Thursday, September 15, 2016

This is why the Giants got Cueto

Mike
Krukow said on the postgame wrap tonight "Games like tonight are why
the Giants went out and got Johnny Cueto in the offseason."

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Giants broke out for more runs than they scored in their entire series with the Padres and Johnny Cueto
recorded his fifth complete game of the season, as San Francisco
defeated the Cardinals, 6-2, at AT&T Park on Thursday night.The win moved the Giants one game in front of the Mets and two games
ahead of the Cardinals in the National League Wild Card standings. San
Francisco also gained a game on the Dodgers, closing to within four
games of the NL West leaders. The Cardinals' loss officially handed the
Chicago Cubs the NL Central crown.

"This is an important time for us," Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright
said of the team's push to advance to the postseason for a sixth
straight season. "I'm not trying to downplay the game, but we do have
time left. We have plenty of time left to make this happen."After combining for just five runs while getting swept by the Padres, the Giants' offense resembled a much more complete group. Hunter Pence hit a two-run homer to extend his hitting streak to nine games, Buster Posey recorded four hits and Cueto even supplied a sacrifice fly to score the go-ahead run. Denard Span, who batted eighth for the first time this year, added to the lead with a two-run base knock in the seventh inning."We tacked on," said Giants manager Bruce Bochy. "Guys did a good
job. It's been an issue in some of these games. They kept fighting."

Breaking out offensively wasn't totally necessary with Cueto on the
mound, though. The right-hander shut down the Cardinals while throwing
his NL-leading fifth complete game of the season. Cueto was untouchable
during the latter half of the game, retiring the last 15 batters he
faced."That's what good starters do -- they're good closers and he really
got better as he went," said Bochy. "They chipped away at him. But he
settled down. He got better there in the eighth and ninth. And I think
he smelled it."Said Cueto: "Every inning I felt a lot better. This was my game."

Wainwright exited the game after allowing four runs in 5 2/3 innings.
He limited the damage for the most part, and San Francisco went just
1-for-8 with runners in scoring position against him.MOMENTS THAT MATTEREDPence gives offense a lift: Pence kickstarted the Giants' offense Thursday night, crushing a hanging curveball 110 mph, according to Statcast™,
into the left-field bleachers in the first inning. The two-run homer
gave the Giants a two-run lead and extended the right fielder's hitting
streak to nine games."That was a hanger," Wainwright said. "That was my worst pitch of the day, for sure."

Posey's consistency: The Giants didn't take batting practice
Thursday and it had an extremely positive effect for Posey. The catcher
provided the Giants with just his second four-hit game of the season
Thursday. He went 4-for-5 with one double and a run."He had a good day, didn't he?" said Bochy. "He did a nice job behind the plate and swung the bat well."